The Pokédex is a tribute to the original Pokédex from Pokémon Red and Blue, released in Japan in 1996 for the Nintendo Game Boy. In the game, the Pokédex serves as a way for players to automatically catalog and further research any of the 151 Pokémon found in the game.
Users are greeted by a familiar interface, reminiscent of Nintendo’s Game Boy Color, complete with a clickable ‘A’ and ‘B’ buttons as well as a d-pad for vertical navigation. The application scripts in seven Pokémon at a time as users progress, all the way up to 151.
Users hit the ‘A’ button (or press enter) to select a Pokémon, and once more on the ‘DATA’ option to pull up the description page for the Pokémon, which pulls in the Pokémon’s name, a sprite, some statistics, and a brief description of the Pokémon. To return to the previous page, users can hit the ‘B’ button (or the escape key if using Chrome or Firefox).
In addition, the ‘AREA’ option will pull up the overworld map.
Users can also make use of a search feature, by clicking the Pokéball in the upper left-hand corner, and can enter either the name or number of the Pokémon they’re searching for, which will then load in their description.
For an extra layer of nostalgia, users can also access a media player in the upper right-hand corner and listen to the opening overture from Pokémon Red and Blue.
As a bit of an Easter Egg, users can also click any of the letters in the word ‘COLOR’ to change the color of the Game Boy, each of which was available at the launch of the Game Boy Color in 1998:
- Berry (C)
- Grape (O)
- Kiwi (L)
- Dandelion (O)
- Teal (R)
I’d like to thank the students and staff of Galvanize for their help and support, as well as the people over at the PokeAPI for providing a wonderful API for me to work with.
And of course, a big thank you to Pokémon’s developer’s Game Freak, and publisher Nintendo for providing me with hours of entertainment as a child, and a very happy 20th anniversary to Pokémon.
